MN 6 — One Might Wish | Ru-Yi Meditation Center

Reading guide

The teaching in one sentence

Whatever you might wish for — social, material, devotional, meditative, awakening-related — the foundation is the same: ethics, serenity, absorption, discernment, seclusion.

The frame — ethics first, always

The Buddha opens and closes the discourse with the same instruction: "Live by the ethical precepts and the monastic code. Live restrained in the monastic code, conducting yourselves well and resorting for alms in suitable places. Seeing danger in the slightest fault, keep the rules you've undertaken."

Everything between this opening and its identical restatement at the end is a structural argument: ethics is not merely a moral preference but a prerequisite. The seventeen wishes are not exhortations to greedily pile up attainments. They are seventeen demonstrations that the foundation is one.

The ladder of seventeen wishes

The wishes ascend from the mundane to the supramundane. Read them as a single ladder:

§	Wish	Domain
3	"May I be liked and approved by my spiritual companions"	Social
4	"May I receive robes, almsfood, lodgings, medicines"	Material
5	"May the services of my supporters be very fruitful for them"	Generosity flowing back
6	"May deceased family who recollect me be benefited"	Compassion across the threshold
7	"May I prevail over desire and discontent"	Mastery of mind
8	"May I prevail over fear and dread"	Mastery of mind (echoes MN 4)
9	"May I get the four absorptions when I want, without trouble"	Form jhānas
10	"May I have direct experience of the formless liberations"	Formless attainments
11	"May I become a stream-enterer" (3 fetters)	First stage of awakening
12	"May I become a once-returner" (3 fetters + weakening of greed/hate/delusion)	Second stage
13	"May I become a non-returner" (5 lower fetters)	Third stage
14	Psychic powers — multiplying, walking through walls, flight	Iddhi
15	Clairaudience — hearing far and near, human and heavenly	Dibba-sota
16	Mind-reading — understanding others' minds	Ceto-pariya-ñāṇa
17	Recollection of past lives	Pubbe-nivāsa-anussati
18	Clairvoyance — seeing rebirth according to deeds	Dibba-cakkhu
19	"May I realize the undefiled freedom of heart in this very life"	Full awakening

Notice the arc. The wishes begin with what a young monastic might most naturally desire (acceptance from peers, four requisites). They pass through unselfish wishes (that givers be benefited, that deceased relatives benefit). They climb through meditative mastery (jhānas, formless), through the named stages of awakening, through the standard six higher knowledges, and end at full liberation itself.

And the prerequisite, for every one, is the same.

The five-element refrain

For each of the seventeen wishes, the Buddha gives the same five-element response:

Fulfill the precepts (sīlesu paripūrakārī) — complete the ethical foundation.
Be committed to inner serenity of heart (ajjhattaṁ cetosamatha) — cultivate the calmed mind.
Do not neglect absorption (anirākatajjhāno) — keep the jhāna door open.
Be endowed with discernment (vipassanāya samannāgato) — develop insight.
Frequent empty huts (brūhetā suññāgārānaṁ) — make space for solitary practice.

These five are not arbitrary. They are the classical sequence of the Buddha's training compressed into a single sentence: ethics → samatha → jhāna → vipassanā → seclusion. The refrain is also the discourse's quiet rebuke of any spiritual marketplace that promises high attainments via specialized tricks. The foundation is broad and the foundation is one.

The quiet egalitarianism

The structure makes a remarkable claim that is easy to miss on a first reading. The wish "may I be liked by my spiritual companions" gets the same answer as the wish "may I realize the undefiled freedom of heart." The wish to receive good almsfood gets the same answer as the wish to fly through the air. The wish that deceased relatives be benefited by recollecting me gets the same answer as the wish to recollect a hundred thousand past lives.

No wish in the list is rejected. No wish is treated as ignoble. The Buddha is not hierarchically grading aspirations — he is saying, in effect: whatever your aspiration, sincere or grand, you need the same five things. The democratic claim is not that all wishes are equal, but that all wishes share a foundation. This may be one of the canon's most pastoral passages: it does not shame a practitioner for wishing to be liked by their colleagues. It includes that wish in the same instruction it gives for full awakening.

A modern parallel

The discourse's structure resembles, of all things, the way physical fitness works in modern terms. A person might wish for many specific things: to run a marathon, to bench press their body weight, to climb a difficult route, to dance a routine without losing breath, to play a competitive sport into their seventies. Each of these has specific training. But all of them share a foundation: cardiovascular base, mobility, sleep, nutrition, recovery. A person who skips the foundation in favor of the specific skill will plateau and break.

MN 6 is making the same claim about contemplative training. You can wish for what you wish. The wishes are not the problem. The problem is bypassing the foundation. A meditator who wishes for psychic power but does not keep their precepts is in the position of a runner who wants the marathon time without the base mileage. The Buddha is telling them: not because the wish is wrong, but because the route runs through the same five places.

Three questions Western students often ask

"The psychic powers — multiplying the body, walking through walls, touching the sun — are these literal? Do I have to believe in them?" The Pāli Canon treats them as the genuine fruit of deep concentration in the framework of its cosmology. Modern Western practitioners vary in how literally they take them. For the discourse's structural argument, what matters is this: even the most extraordinary attainments are presented as accessible by the same foundation as the most mundane. You can hold any view on the literal possibility of flying meditators — the teaching's point about the foundation does not depend on that view.

"Why is 'being liked by my spiritual companions' on the list? Isn't that vanity?" The list is deliberately inclusive of wishes that arise from ordinary social life. The wish to be respected by one's community is what any honest practitioner has felt. The Buddha does not flatten it with shame; he includes it in the ladder. The pedagogical point is not that all wishes are equally noble, but that no wish is excluded from the practice. The foundation will hold whatever wish you bring to it.

"The Buddha says 'frequent empty huts' (suññāgārānaṁ) — does this only apply to monastics?" Literal "empty hut" is the standard image for solitary practice in monastic culture. The underlying principle generalizes: make periods of solitude in which the mind has nothing to lean on except its own training. For a layperson this might mean dedicated retreat time, daily sit periods without device, or quiet walks in nature. The principle is the carving out of solitude; the form is local.

Key terms

ākaṅkheyya — one might wish. The verbal form that titles the discourse. The optative mood: not "should wish" or "must wish," but "might wish" — a hypothetical, modeling the inclusive embrace of possible aspirations.

sīlesu paripūrakārī — fulfilling the precepts. The first element of the five-element refrain. The non-negotiable foundation.

ajjhattaṁ cetosamatha — inner serenity of heart. Literally "internal calming of the mind/heart." The second element. The cultivated stillness on which absorption can rest.

anirākatajjhāno — not neglecting absorption. The third element. The negative formulation matters: the wish is not "always be in jhāna" but "do not let the door close."

vipassanā — discernment, insight. The fourth element. The complement to samatha: not just calm, but the seeing that calm makes possible.

suññāgārānaṁ brūhetā — one who frequents empty huts. The fifth element. Suññāgāra is the standard image for solitary practice; brūhetā means one who develops or cultivates by repetition.

sotāpanna · sakadāgāmī · anāgāmī · arahant — stream-enterer, once-returner, non-returner, perfected one. The four stages of awakening. Wishes 11, 12, 13, and 19 of the discourse aim at the first three and the fourth respectively.

iddhi · dibba-sota · ceto-pariya-ñāṇa · pubbe-nivāsa-anussati · dibba-cakkhu · āsavakkhaya-ñāṇa — the six higher knowledges (chaḷabhiññā). Psychic power, clairaudience, mind-reading, recollection of past lives, clairvoyance, ending of defilements. Wishes 14–18 and 19 correspond to these six.

The text

MN 6 is structured as a frame (the ethical injunction at §2 and §20) surrounding a ladder of seventeen specific wishes (§§3–19). Each wish is followed by the same five-element refrain — fulfill the precepts, be committed to inner serenity of heart, not neglect absorption, be endowed with discernment, frequent empty huts. For readability the refrain is given in full at §§3 and §19 and abbreviated with an ellipsis in the middle entries — following Sujato's print convention. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).

The ethical foundation

§1So I have heard. At one time the Buddha was staying near Sāvatthī in Jeta's Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika's monastery. There the Buddha addressed the mendicants, "Mendicants!" "Venerable sir," they replied. The Buddha said this:

§2"Mendicants, live by the ethical precepts and the monastic code. Live restrained in the monastic code, conducting yourselves well and resorting for alms in suitable places. Seeing danger in the slightest fault, keep the rules you've undertaken.

Social and material wishes

§3A mendicant might wish: 'May I be liked and approved by my spiritual companions, respected and admired.' So let them fulfill their precepts, be committed to inner serenity of the heart, not neglect absorption, be endowed with discernment, and frequent empty huts.

§4A mendicant might wish: 'May I receive robes, almsfood, lodgings, and medicines and supplies for the sick.' So let them fulfill their precepts, be committed to inner serenity of the heart, not neglect absorption, be endowed with discernment, and frequent empty huts.

§5A mendicant might wish: 'May the services of those whose robes, almsfood, lodgings, and medicines and supplies for the sick I enjoy be very fruitful and beneficial for them.' So let them fulfill their precepts …

§6A mendicant might wish: 'When deceased family and relatives who have passed away recollect me with a confident mind, may this be very fruitful and beneficial for them.' So let them fulfill their precepts …

Mastery of mind

§7A mendicant might wish: 'May I prevail over desire and discontent, and may desire and discontent not prevail over me. May I live having mastered desire and discontent whenever they arose.' So let them fulfill their precepts …

§8A mendicant might wish: 'May I prevail over fear and dread, and may fear and dread not prevail over me. May I live having mastered fear and dread whenever they arose.' So let them fulfill their precepts …

The absorptions and formless attainments

§9A mendicant might wish: 'May I get the four absorptions — blissful meditations in this life that belong to the higher mind — when I want, without trouble or difficulty.' So let them fulfill their precepts …

§10A mendicant might wish: 'May I have direct meditative experience of the peaceful liberations that are formless, transcending form.' So let them fulfill their precepts …

The three stages of partial awakening

§11A mendicant might wish: 'May I, with the ending of three fetters, become a stream-enterer, not liable to be reborn in the underworld, assured, destined for awakening.' So let them fulfill their precepts …

§12A mendicant might wish: 'May I, with the ending of three fetters, and the weakening of greed, hate, and delusion, become a once-returner, coming back to this world once only, then making an end of suffering.' So let them fulfill their precepts …

§13A mendicant might wish: 'May I, with the ending of the five lower fetters, be reborn spontaneously and become extinguished there, not liable to return from that world.' So let them fulfill their precepts …

The six higher knowledges

§14A mendicant might wish: 'May I wield the many kinds of psychic power: multiplying myself and becoming one again; materializing and dematerializing; going unobstructed through a wall, a rampart, or a mountain as if through space; diving in and out of the earth as if it were water; walking on water as if it were earth; flying cross-legged through the sky like a bird; touching and stroking with my hand the sun and moon, so mighty and powerful; controlling the body as far as the realm of divinity.' So let them fulfill their precepts …

§15A mendicant might wish: 'With clairaudience that is purified and superhuman, may I hear both kinds of sounds, human and heavenly, whether near or far.' So let them fulfill their precepts …

§16A mendicant might wish: 'May I understand the minds of other beings and individuals, having encompassed them with my mind. May I understand mind with greed as "mind with greed", and mind without greed as "mind without greed"; mind with hate as "mind with hate", and mind without hate as "mind without hate"; mind with delusion as "mind with delusion", and mind without delusion as "mind without delusion"; constricted mind as "constricted mind", and scattered mind as "scattered mind"; expansive mind as "expansive mind", and unexpansive mind as "unexpansive mind"; mind that is not supreme as "mind that is not supreme", and mind that is supreme as "mind that is supreme"; mind immersed in samādhi as "mind immersed in samādhi", and mind not immersed in samādhi as "mind not immersed in samādhi"; freed mind as "freed mind", and unfreed mind as "unfreed mind".' So let them fulfill their precepts …

§17A mendicant might wish: 'May I recollect many kinds of past lives. That is: one, two, three, four, five, ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, a hundred, a thousand, a hundred thousand rebirths; many eons of the world contracting, many eons of the world expanding, many eons of the world contracting and expanding. May I remember: "There, I was named this, my clan was that, I looked like this, and that was my food. This was how I felt pleasure and pain, and that was how my life ended. When I passed away from that place I was reborn somewhere else. There, too, I was named this, my clan was that, I looked like this, and that was my food. This was how I felt pleasure and pain, and that was how my life ended. When I passed away from that place I was reborn here." May I thus recollect my many kinds of past lives, with features and details.' So let them fulfill their precepts …

§18A mendicant might wish: 'With clairvoyance that is purified and superhuman, may I see sentient beings passing away and being reborn — inferior and superior, beautiful and ugly, in a good place or a bad place — and understand how sentient beings pass on according to their deeds.' So let them fulfill their precepts …

Full awakening

§19A mendicant might wish: 'May I realize the undefiled freedom of heart and freedom by wisdom in this very life, and live having realized it with my own insight due to the ending of defilements.' So let them fulfill their precepts, be committed to inner serenity of the heart, not neglect absorption, be endowed with discernment, and frequent empty huts.

The frame closes

§20'Mendicants, live by the ethical precepts and the monastic code. Live restrained in the monastic code, conducting yourselves well and resorting for alms in suitable places. Seeing danger in the slightest fault, keep the rules you've undertaken.' That's what I said, and this is why I said it."

That is what the Buddha said. Satisfied, the mendicants approved what the Buddha said.

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Self-check quiz

Ten questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.

Question 1 of 10

What is the structural feature that defines MN 6?

Correct: C. The Buddha is making a structural claim: regardless of what you might wish for — social acceptance, material support, meditative mastery, the stages of awakening, psychic powers, full liberation — the prerequisite is identical. The structure is the teaching.

Question 2 of 10

What are the five elements of the standard refrain given for every wish?

Correct: D. Sīla → samatha → jhāna → vipassanā → seclusion. The classical sequence of the Buddha's training compressed into a single sentence. Each element is a doorway; missing any one of them weakens what stands on top.

Question 3 of 10

The FIRST wish in the ladder is:

Correct: A. The ladder begins with one of the most ordinary social wishes — to be respected by one's colleagues. This is deliberate. The discourse does not shame this wish; it includes it in the same instruction it gives for full awakening. The pastoral move is part of the teaching.

Question 4 of 10

Wish §8 — "May I prevail over fear and dread" — echoes which previous discourse?

Correct: C. The vocabulary is identical: bhaya and bherava. MN 4 was the Buddha's first-person account of how he met this; MN 6 names it as one of the wishes a practitioner might form. The two discourses pair: MN 4 shows the practice; MN 6 includes it in the universal foundation.

Question 5 of 10

Three wishes in the ladder name the partial stages of awakening. What is the correct sequence?

Correct: B. Sotāpanna · sakadāgāmī · anāgāmī. The first three of the four stages, distinguished by which fetters have been eliminated and by how many returns to this world remain. The fourth — arahant, full liberation — is wish §19, the discourse's climax.

Question 6 of 10

Which of the following is NOT among the seventeen wishes the Buddha lists?

Correct: C. The first three are all on the list (§4, §14, §17). The fourth — being a famous teacher — is not. The discourse is careful: every wish on the list either concerns one's own training or names a fruit of that training. The wish for institutional standing is absent.

Question 7 of 10

The discourse's most distinctive teaching move is:

Correct: D. The wish to be liked by your colleagues receives the same answer as the wish to fly through the air, and as the wish for full awakening. This is one of the canon's quietly democratic claims: no specialized tricks for high attainments, no shortcuts for low ones. The foundation is one.

Question 8 of 10

The fifth element of the refrain is "frequent empty huts" (suññāgārānaṁ brūhetā). What does this mean for a practitioner?

Correct: C. "Empty hut" is the standard monastic image for solitary practice. The principle — make periods of solitude in which the mind has nothing to lean on except its training — generalizes. Form follows situation; the principle is fixed.

Question 9 of 10

The discourse opens and closes with the same exhortation, framing the seventeen wishes inside it. What is that exhortation?

Correct: C. The frame is ethical. Everything in between — the seventeen wishes and their identical refrain — is a structural argument for why the frame matters. The discourse is, in one sense, a long demonstration that the opening sentence is non-negotiable.

Question 10 of 10

A modern parallel. A meditator wishes for deep concentration but routinely skips ethical commitments — small dishonesties, casual unkindnesses. By the discourse's logic, what is happening?

Correct: C. The discourse's claim is structural, not moralistic. The wish for concentration is included on the ladder (§9). It is not rejected. But the route to it runs through the foundation. Skipping ethics is like skipping the base in any endurance discipline — the surface skill plateaus, then breaks under load.

Answered 0 of 10 · Correct 0

One Might Wish

Why this discourse, sixth